Boys Will Be Boys, Especially For Uf-fsu

The last time the Seminoles scalped the Gators on the football field, Gordon ''Stumpy'' Harris arrived at work to find a casket with an alligator effigy inside.

Harris, an Orlando lawyer and zealous Gator, was a bit annoyed by the Seminole prank. It was his fourth straight loss in the annual contest, and he was getting sensitive.

Yet Harris handled it so well -- he even returned the casket -- that a few years later the man he identified as the prankster hired him for a major legal case.

So it goes with the University of Florida Gators and the Florida State University Seminoles -- mortal enemies in numbered uniforms and friendly rivals in business suits.

Harris said Winter Garden Mayor and businessman Bob Barber sent the casket, but the Seminole won't confess.

''He claims a lot of things,'' Barber said. ''You can't believe what Stumpy Harris says, because he's a Gator. He has so many enemies because he's a Gator, there's no way to identify the real culprit.''

Such jousting between alumni of the two universities permeates politics, law and business in Florida, from the orange-and-blue Gator jacket worn by Rep. Sid Martin of Hawthorne to the daily teasing that goes on in offices, stores and parking lots.

The kidding, a way for alumni to rekindle youthful spirits and prove their alma mater superior, is especially intense around the annual UF-FSU football game, which will be played Saturday in Gainesville.

Although many Gators regard the University of Georgia Bulldogs as more serious rivals because that contest has a longer history, the Seminoles of Tallahassee are as impossible to ignore as northern relatives who won't go home.

-- A witness waiting to give a deposition endures several minutes of lawyers arguing over whose team is better.

-- The Gator-dominated Florida Citrus Commission threatens to deny a type of rebate to companies with FSU-colored logos.

Although the rivalry is mostly in fun, it is used as a tool for boosting business and charity, winning votes and fostering alliances:

-- Barber recently earned $201 for a Winter Garden hospital by donning a hated Gator shirt and posing for photographs at a fund-raiser. It was the closest he has come to scandal.

-- Pete Aylward, associate director for placement at UF, said collegiate loyalties are a factor in hiring, though alumni of both schools deny it. ''If it came down to two people in a dead heat, one from Florida State and one from Florida, they an employer loyal to UF would probably pick the Gator,'' Aylward said.

-- Bob Rogers, vice president for marketing for Miami Elevator Co., uses the competition to motivate his sales force of 12 Seminoles and 10 Gators, inspiring each side to outsell the other. Rogers, who did not attend either school, is not sure how well the technique works, but he's sure that it's fun. -- Former Gov. Reubin Askew, now an Orlando lawyer, attributes his political success in part to careful rooting for both rivals. He graduated from FSU in 1951 and from the UF law school in 1956.

Two-timing is a popular political technique. Rep. Beverly Burnsed of Lakeland, a 1962 FSU grad who is secretary of the alumni association, said, ''Most of us have Seminole shirts and Gators shirts.''

-- John Antoon, a Brevard County circuit judge, is the only Seminole on the bench in the 18th circuit and thus takes ''a great deal of abuse.'' Since losing a game bet last year, he has had to wear a Gator tie to monthly judges' meetings.

Still, he calls the rivalry a ''source of friendship.'' Of course, he can bask in the memory of winning a game bet against a Gator who had to shave half his mustache and wear it that way for a day.

Feelings were not always that charitable, and they have not had time to mature fully. The football teams did not meet until 1958, because FSU was a women's college until 1947.

Even when the Seminoles could field a team, they were not taken seriously at first, former students recall. In fact, it took a threat of legislative action to persuade the Gators to play.

And it was not until FSU beat UF four consecutive times, starting in 1977, that the Seminoles got enough respect to make the game a real contest.

Beyond their growing football prowess, the Seminoles have reason to feel secure: Gator power is eroding in state leadership. FSU got its own law school in 1966 and started preparing its own politicians. The state's population boom has also brought in graduates of many other schools.

The Gators once ran the Legislature. But of 160 current lawmakers, 34 attended UF, and 26 went to FSU. The University of Miami is close behind, with 18, and many legislators were educated out of state.